I survived Pearl Harbor

Wednesday

Jan 18, 2012 at 12:01 AMJan 18, 2012 at 5:17 PM

Bill rushed outside, and off in the distance was Pearl Harbor. Japanese aircraft were zoning in on their targets, bombs were dropping and fireballs and thick, black smoke were rising into the air. It was all happening so fast.

Dominic Genetti

His hair has thinned away, faded to weak snow white. His once strong hands have gone frail to a soft, light grip. His mahogany skin has paled with age.

But when Bill Studer tells his story about what he experienced on Dec. 7, 1941, the audience is given a canvas only a survivor of the “Day of Infamy” can paint.

At times, you can still see the attacking Japanese Zeros flying in the tears of his gray eyes that were once as blue as the Hawaiian waters.

“It kind of bothered me,” the 90-year-old said. “It’s been so long ago that it happened, there’s no use dwelling on it.”

Like the many men and women of the military based in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor and the surrounding area, that particular Sunday morning started off as normal as any other day. Bill, a private first class 50-caliber No. 1 gunman for the U.S. Army, had just arrived in the cafeteria of his barracks for breakfast.

“I went in to eat breakfast, and they said Pearl Harbor was bombed,” he said. “And I had just gotten two eggs, and this cook got all excited — hell, he didn’t want me to eat. He said, ‘Get out, get out.’ I just grabbed one whole egg and flapped it in my mouth. That’s when I found out you can put a whole egg in your mouth.”

Bill rushed outside, and off in the distance was Pearl Harbor. Japanese aircraft were zoning in on their targets, bombs were dropping and fireballs and thick, black smoke were rising into the air. It was all happening so fast. Just as soon as the deafening, roaring buzz of the Zeros could be heard above, explosions and gunfire were occurring below.

Some of the sailors, Army men and fly boys were stunned at first and thought it could maybe be a drill. The United States Pacific fleet had been given a heads up about a potential attack from Japan, but there was no strong certainty.

“Just a lot of noise, lot of noise,” Bill remembers. “Everybody was excited just hurrying around.”

The orders for the Japanese fighters included not only the battleships stationed at Pearl Harbor along Battleship Row, but also American aircrafts grouped together at the surrounding airfields. With the military on alert, planes at the Hawaiian air bases and airfields were lined up wing tip to wing tip in an effort to avoid massive loss if an attack occurred. Unfortunately, that action backfired on the Americans during the attack, allowing the Japanese to take out more planes.

Bill was caught in all of the rush and almost didn’t see the Japanese fighter coming at him to attack the adjacent field at his barracks.

“They sent one of the Zeroes over our camp. He came down — and I happen to look up, you can’t hear them when they’re coming,” Bill said. “I made a fake move like I was going to run across in front of him, and he started shooting.”

The bullets speared into gravel field deflecting back chips of rock, sand and dirt.

“I stopped, and went back against the barracks,” Bill said. “He tilted his plane over to the side — and one of the friendliest grins you’d ever seen — he just kind of gave me a wave and a salute-like, ‘You won this round.’ And like a damn fool, I grinned and waved back.

“At the time, it wasn’t scary. It was sort of like a game; he was trying to kill me and I was trying to stay alive. And I got to thinking, I even got to shaking, I thought, ‘That SB was trying to kill me.’”

While the Japanese fighter flew off, Bill and a major from his barrack sped over to Pearl Harbor to help their fellow servicemen fight back. They were based west of the harbor and couldn’t drive directly toward it; they had to drive around the area along the roadways of Oahu an extra 20 miles.

“We got my 50-caliber out and ammunition,” Bill recalled. “We had a few of them belted and put some of this ammunition in the truck and went over to where my battle station was.”

Japan’s raid lasted about two hours. When the planes left, it was time to help the wounded and recover the dead. Bill assisted in getting the bodies out of the blood-stained water.

“I had to help them, I had to help pick them up,” Bill said. “I knew some of them. There was about 3,000 casualties. They buried some of them, and some of them were left on the USS Arizona. We just had a mess to clean up. That was about it.”

Bill went on to serve overseas for the rest of his service time after Pearl Harbor. He spent a total of 43 months and 22 days away from the United States without taking leave or any other time off.

He worked in the oil fields of California after the war and eventually settled in his wife’s hometown, Hannibal, Mo., where he worked as a carpenter until retirement.

He doesn’t talk about Pearl Harbor much, but even to this day, he’s not so sure if it should have happened.

“I think it was a dirty deal,” Bill said. “I think that Churchill and Roosevelt kind of let that happen. We didn’t want to get in that war.”